Need help keeping my hands up

NasDestiny

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I was recently sparring lightly with a friend of mine, having not sparred for months having worked on my jiu-jitsu. To my shock I've noticed that I can't keep my hands up - when they were about to go for mid-kicks I would lower my hands to block/grab, and even worse, would keep it down there even when they were just feinting.

I've had this problem before - originally I was practicing Taekwondo, which had you lower your hands to block. However, I started learning boxing and to keep my hands up, chin down, and above all, don't leave my hands down to try and grab but rather block with my arms. I know that if I were against a muay thai fighter that they would be able to probably level me with a high kick because I would drop my hands to block a kick that wouldn't be there. Does anyone have any recommended ways to help me out and make me break the habit?
 
make a habit of tapping yourself on the forehead while sparring. it will be like a mental note to yourself to keep your hands up
 
slap yourself...neah..seriously..it will come in time... in a year you wont recognize yourself
 
I was recently sparring lightly with a friend of mine, having not sparred for months having worked on my jiu-jitsu. To my shock I've noticed that I can't keep my hands up - when they were about to go for mid-kicks I would lower my hands to block/grab, and even worse, would keep it down there even when they were just feinting.

I've had this problem before - originally I was practicing Taekwondo, which had you lower your hands to block. However, I started learning boxing and to keep my hands up, chin down, and above all, don't leave my hands down to try and grab but rather block with my arms. I know that if I were against a muay thai fighter that they would be able to probably level me with a high kick because I would drop my hands to block a kick that wouldn't be there. Does anyone have any recommended ways to help me out and make me break the habit?

Get hit real hard sparring! Your hands will learn to go up! Honestly, I used to do the same thing until I started sparring harder with better guys and got rocked a few times.

I had a really good boxing coach who made me take the thumbs on my boxing gloves and tap myself in the temples every time I finished throwing punches and during shadowboxing and footwork drills. It really did help alot learning to keep my hands up.
 
Try holding a piece of paper to you're cheeks or temples with your knuckes, and then practice footwork, head/upper body movement, and such. drill that for say 3 rounds of 2 mins
 
getting kicked in the head will certainly make you aware of where your hands are. That was the big tipping point for me.
 
When Tito Ortiz was a coach on the Ultimate Fighter he had one of his guys hold a basketball to his forehead to get used to holding his hands up. If I remember correctly it helped but then you'd look pretty funny walking around your gym like that. I thought it was pretty clever though.

I think tapping yourself on the temples is a good idea. I've seen people do that and always wondered why.
 
When you do footwork drills, take a coat hanger, turn it upsidedown and hold it in your elbow pits. When your arms start to go down, you'll drop the coat hanger. Feel free to punish yourself with push ups.

EDIT: Upon thinking about it, this may have more to do with keeping your elbows in, either way it'll likely help.
 
When Tito Ortiz was a coach on the Ultimate Fighter he had one of his guys hold a basketball to his forehead to get used to holding his hands up. If I remember correctly it helped but then you'd look pretty funny walking around your gym like that. I thought it was pretty clever though.

I think tapping yourself on the temples is a good idea. I've seen people do that and always wondered why.

beat me to it, if all else fails tape them to your head.
 
When Tito Ortiz was a coach on the Ultimate Fighter he had one of his guys hold a basketball to his forehead to get used to holding his hands up. If I remember correctly it helped but then you'd look pretty funny walking around your gym like that. I thought it was pretty clever though.

I think tapping yourself on the temples is a good idea. I've seen people do that and always wondered why.

That was clever, I think the problem with doing that is your not teaching yourself to keep your elbows down to protect your ribs. You see alot of MMA fighters lift there hands and elbows straight up into earmuff position. Maybe it is usefull in MMA, I don't know. However, if you are sparring with a good boxer/kickboxer, your ribs are going to get hammered for bringing your elbows up that high!

Whoever used the coathanger analogy below: That would be a much more effective way of learning where to keep your hands....... Not to mention, if your keeping the hanger in your armpit and your hands up high it is going to force you to put your chin down to stay covered up!
 
That was clever, I think the problem with doing that is your not teaching yourself to keep your elbows down to protect your ribs. You see alot of MMA fighters lift there hands and elbows straight up into earmuff position. Maybe it is usefull in MMA, I don't know. However, if you are sparring with a good boxer/kickboxer, your ribs are going to get hammered for bringing your elbows up that high!


Rather take it in the ribs rather than the jaw. Search Rodney King and his 'Crazy Monkey Boxing'.

If your using a high guard your not keeping the hands up there all the time, its an emergency, 'oh shit', defence against head shots. If you want to look after your mid section, squat slightly.

Great post on this thread.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f11/crazy-monkey-boxing-muay-thai-731871/index2.html
 
Get hit real hard sparring! Your hands will learn to go up! Honestly, I used to do the same thing until I started sparring harder with better guys and got rocked a few times.

I had a really good boxing coach who made me take the thumbs on my boxing gloves and tap myself in the temples every time I finished throwing punches and during shadowboxing and footwork drills. It really did help alot learning to keep my hands up.

exactly. When i started training in Kickboxing and mma I was taught proper hand position on kicks. But yet, a quarter of the time i would drop them when i kicked (bad habit from TKD when i was younger) My first MMA bout, I lost via KO in the 2nd round because I dropped my hands throwing a leg kick and he came right over the the top with a haymaker and clocked me.

You know what? (you say "what?") After that I learned to keep my damn hands up. Every time I sparred right after that fight, my sparring partners or just anyone watching me spar would pay extra attention to my hand position on my kicks and if they dropped just a tad out of position wether or not if he was throwing a punch or not, they would let me know about it.
 
It will come in due time. I've been doing muay thai for the last few months and also had a problem mantaining my guard. As long as you keep it in mind not to expose yourself for too long while sparring you'll soon find yourself keeping your hands up. Sparring is good for this because if you drop your guard for too long then your gonna eat leather.
 
Thanks for the help guys. On the plus side of the sparring I realized that I work pretty well behind my jab, and that slowing down the tempo and then bum-rushing in an organized way works fairly well
 
Rather take it in the ribs rather than the jaw.

You wouldn't be saying if you sparred some of the guys at my gym. Shots to the liver are no joke.

I've learned to keep my hands by eating numerous left hooks in sparring. And TS, it doesn't seem like you're going to an actualy gym. Go find a trainer.
 
You wouldn't be saying if you sparred some of the guys at my gym. Shots to the liver are no joke.

I've learned to keep my hands by eating numerous left hooks in sparring. And TS, it doesn't seem like you're going to an actualy gym. Go find a trainer.

this guy speaks the truth

if you spar against some quality boxers you will learn very quickly to keep your hands up.
 
when i first started boxing i was told to take my t-shirt and pull it up so i was holding a part of it in my mouth .. you can do this with your hands by sort of wrapping your thumbs around the collar/brim of the t-shirt if youre just practicing movemnet.. the thumb thing doesnt work if youre throwin punches though soo tyson used to constanly tap himself on his cheeks
 
Hold up your lead arm so that you can hold a basketball against your head.
Practise moving around like that and hit the bag like that (of course with your right arm)
 
make a habit of tapping yourself on the forehead while sparring. it will be like a mental note to yourself to keep your hands up

This is what I do...works for me. I don't even think about it anymore...It just happens.

The downside to this, however, is that I constantly get sweat in my eyes so I leave a hard session with blood shot, stinging eyes.
 
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